Thursday, July 31, 2014

FuturesPast Editions is proud to announce that it has entered into an
agreement with Steve Davidson, new owner of Amazing Stories—the first
science fiction magazine, founded in 1926 by Hugo Gernsback - and with DPS
digital book production - to distribute a new line of classic reprints from the
magazine's early years. (Check out Amazing
Stories' new website at amazingstoriesmag.com.) This
new series will be published under the imprint "Amazing Stories
Classics".

First off the drawing board is Amazing Stories: The Giant 35th
Anniversary Issue, a reprint of the double-sized 1961 issue rounding up
some of the best stories the magazine had published up to that point. A
rare collectible, this special issue is available now in ebook for $3.99
and paperback for $9.99 at Amazon and other outlets. It features all the
original illustrations by the legendary Frank R. Paul for each story. The
authors comprise a Who's Who of early science fiction: SFWA Grandmaster Ray
Bradbury, Jules Verne Prize recipient Edmond Hamilton, Buck Rogers creator
Philip Francis Nowland, David H. Keller who John Clute hailed as "the
ideal" Gernsback writer, Science Fiction Hall of Fame honoree Edgar Rice
Burroughs, Eisner Hall of Fame inductee Eando Binder, and R. F. Starzl, dubbed
a "master" of space opera by E. E. Smith. The table of contents
presents a stellar lineup of such notable stories as "I,
Robot," "Armageddon: 2419" (introducing Buck Rogers),
"John Carter and the Giant of Mars," and "Devolution." It
is a volume that belongs on every fan's bookshelf, be it wood or digital!

Then, due out on Wednesday, August 6th, is The Best of Amazing Stories: 1926, the first of a
year-by-year showcase of the best stories selected from each year of the
publication's storied history. Our 1926 selection presents work by such
distinguished practitioners of the craft as multiple Hugo Award winner Murray
Leinster, Gernsback Award winners H. G. Wells, Curt Siodmak, G. Peyton
Wertenbaker and A. Hyatt Verrill, the controversial Austin Hall, and others.

Forthcoming under the Amazing Stories Classics imprint are The Best of
Amazing Stories: 1927, and reprints of two widely acclaimed classics, far
ahead of their time, from the 1930s Amazing Stories Quarterlies: Seeds of
Life,After 12,000 Years, and Away from the Here and Now—a
collection of stories by Clare Winger Harris, the first woman to sell a story
to a science fiction magazine.

"I am extremely busy growing Amazing
Stories in its new incarnation as an all-digital publication. But I wanted
to acquaint new readers with the great stories from the magazine's early
history," says new publisher Steve Davidson. "Partnering with digital
book producers Digital Parchment Services meant I could turn over the work on
compiling and publishing Amazing Stories Classics to them, and the distribution
to FuturesPast Editions, who have been selling science fiction, fantasy and
horror on the web since 2000. This arrangement allows me to focus on the new Amazing
Stories while ensuring a steady supply of our best classic stories and
novels to potential readers."

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Way back in 1961, for a Life Magazine feature, Hugo Gernsback modeled one of his most futuristic ideas, TV glasses. A few years ago Google caught up with the visionary founder and editor of Amazing Stories with their Google glasses. But the pioneering Gernsback was there first. Albeit, using the some what clunker technology of the time. Here Hugo is, modeling his invention:

Get Amazing Stories: The Giant 35th Anniversary Issue.

FuturesPast Editions is distributing it, and other books as part of the new Amazing Stories Classics imprint created by Steve Davidson, publisher of the new Amazing Stories reboot.

Analog described theT.E.R.R.A. series as "lively fun," and writer/director Steve Latshaw (Stan Lee's Lightspeed, Return of the Killer Shrews) says of the Emperor books:

"High adventure riches, mixing every the best of heady
60s spy adventure with the breakneck pace and scale of the great
Republic serials, cool
paperbacks and comics with a wry sense of good humor. And best of all, when I read them, I'm 12
years old again, and the world is new and full of intrigue, and
possibilities. And high adventure. Oh, and the good guys win. As they should."

Click on the ads to check out these cool series at the FuturesPast Editions site.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Sabra Jardine, daughter of the late social critic and sex researcher, Jack Jardine, best known to science fiction fans as Larry Maddock, author of the 1960s Agent of T.E.R.R.A. series, has sent FuturesPast Editions what we consider to be his "lost" masterpiece. Originally titled "Madam Ninon" it was published under the outlandish title "Malibu Nymphs" by a short lived pulp paperback publisher with no hint on the cover that the book was in any way science fiction. Written in the early months of 1961, "Madam Ninon" parallels the approach and subject matter of Robert A. Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land." Both use the trope, first popularized in "Candide," of a naif who slowly discovers the hollowness of his culture's morals and shibboleths, particularly those surrounding sexuality . As with Heinlein's novel, this examination is triggered by the presence of a messianistic figure with strange powers. Set at the dawn of the 1960s, just before the sexual revolution, the book's central figure, Madam Ninon, was inspired by Maddock/Jardine's research into the life and sexual philosophy of the famous 17th century courtesan and writer, Anne "Ninon" de l'Enclos. Her sexual philosophy, "We should take care to lay in a stock of provisions, but not of pleasures: these should be gathered day by day-" resonated strongly with Maddock/Jardine. As did her founding of a School of Gallsntry where she taught the arts of love to the sons and daughters of the aristocracy. Filled with pungent verbal duels, Madam Ninon often reads like something out of Heinlein's "Stranger."

From the text:

He said suddenly, not
willing the words and not able to stop the torrent of emotion which had been
fermenting inside him. "My Lady, when I told you I loved you I meant it.
I'll be your slave for life, asking no other reward than the privilege of
looking at you from time to time."

Brett looked at the flame-tressed goddess and
won­dered how such a diety as she could ever need a mere human such as himself... Brett could no more attain her degree of perfection than he could try
to compete with his own mother. He smiled inwardly—maybe that was why he couldn't
quite face the thought of going to bed with her, it would be too much like
sleeping with his mother. But Ninon wasn't his mother.

The goddess was talking.
"We're all emotionally right wingers, conservatives to an extreme, with
conservative moral prejudices built into us long before we're able to think.
That's why everyone can know,
intellectually, that a certain taboo is senseless, and yet we all continue to
observe the senseless taboos. Even I, Brett. I feel uneasy when I hear certain
words, or see them in print. I can't help it."

"If there are areas which the individual must
not talk about or think about, these areas are

closed to creativity—and any
possible good coming about as an accidental offshoot of thinking in these areas
is elim­inated. But there is a much more positive evil in censoring the human
mind in any area—it gets us used to being censored, to being controlled. It
opens the door to total brainwashing."

I've got a lot of emotional prejudices to over­come,
Brett thought ruefully. And
there's no better time to start overcoming them right now . . .

Madam Ninon will be published Fall 2014.

Meanwhile, you can read his equally fascinating Agent of T.E.R.R.A. series, written as by Larry Maddock.

Futures-Past Editions publishes science fiction, fantasy, adventure, pulp, and more in five ebook formats. You'll find books carefully selected from the best contemporary authors and the great masters of the past.